


Circadian Friendship Cycle

by limpinglumpy



Series: July 2020 Prompts_Adjectives [3]
Category: N.Flying (Band)
Genre: Gen, Other, attached!jaehyun, dukbae, exasperated!hun, romang - Freeform, supportive?hweseung, tween besties!au, unhelpful!seunghyub+dongsung
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-04
Updated: 2020-07-04
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:21:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,357
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25044571
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/limpinglumpy/pseuds/limpinglumpy
Summary: Jaehyun must—MUST!!—come over to Hun’s house incrementally, for 24 hours at a time, because otherwise he’ll surely die of boredom. At least that’s what his racing heartbeat tells him every time he has to leave his bestie alone.
Relationships: Cha Hoon & Kim Jaehyun
Series: July 2020 Prompts_Adjectives [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1811602
Comments: 4
Kudos: 15





	Circadian Friendship Cycle

**Author's Note:**

> circadian — (adj.) being/having/characterized by/occurring in approximately 24-hr periods/cycles [as of biological activity or function]  
> \- circadian rhythms in activity
> 
> Music: Kilo Kish – Curious, cehryl - Home Video, BETWEEN FRIENDS – affection, Molly Burch – To the Boys

“ **I** can’t take it anymore…”

Hun’s on his couch, talking to Hweseung over the phone while Jaehyun’s still asleep in the bedroom. Hweseung probably doesn’t want anything to do with Hun and his “twelve-year-old” problems at 3 am, but the kid’s the only one Hun knows he can bribe into listening without offering sage advice like “just tell him to leave,” or “hyung, I’m going back to sleep, that’s ridiculous:” the kind that Seunghyub and Dongsung give him whenever he calls them up. As expected, Hweseung only mumbles a few incoherent, tired syllables into his phone, as if urging Hun to get on with his issues.

_“Just don’t take too long,”_ Hun imagines the small boy muttering in his groggy brain. There’s a confirmatory yawn from Hweseung. _Noted, I’ll be quick, then…_

Hun clears his throat before beginning his rant. “He’s here again. I can’t take care of Romang, I can’t go to the bathroom for more than 5 minutes — even when it’s not just taking a leak — and it’s like I have to take care of a dog, not spend time with my best friend!”

Hun’s fond of Jaehyun and all, but sometimes the younger boy’s attention is a bit too much. An hour with Jaehyun is fun, two hours — entertaining, three or four or seven — bearable. But spending twenty-four hours with Jaehyun would be difficult for anybody, even for the boy’s parents, who are always away on business trips and vacations in foreign lands. Then there’s Jaehyun’s older sister who loves him, but she’s busy, herself, and Jaehyun can never get all the attention he craves when she’s the only one around the house. She’s busy with her own friends, after all. And those exams she’s taking summer courses for.

But Hun has bigger problems than summer courses to worry about.

“A dog, yeah!! Which, by the way, I **do** have to take care of, now. Surprising: I know, right?”

A bit over a week ago, Jaehyun had begged his sister into asking their parents for a dog. His excuse was that “he had nobody to play with” and “Hun was getting tired of him,” so of course Jaekyung took all that into account when speaking to the Kim family parents (she knew how much trouble her younger brother could cause). And so, Jaehyun had been presented with a brand-new little fluff of a puppy.

Hun was ecstatic for his friend. Jaehyun had been wishing to be blessed with a dog for years. Plus, Hun thought that the new dog’s arrival would mean that he could spend **normal** hours with his best friend, now that said friend had another living being to take care of and pamper and flood with attention.

But Jaehyun had other plans. Now both he **and** his sheeb were around Hun 24/7, and life had never been better for the pair. Romang and Hun were, on the other hand, unimpressed. They’d heard “Dukbae-ah, come here!” and “no, Dukbae-ah, don’t chew that!” and “wait, don’t pee there, Dukbae!!” too many times to count. Hun’s parents — who were almost always around in the evenings after work and who had the whole day off on Sundays — were too polite to kick Jaehyun out directly, and all of their attempts at hinting to the boy that he had to go home went unnoticed.

When Hun thinks about everything, though, he also never asks Jaehyun to leave. _Huh._

His voice becomes a whisper full of contemplation. “ **Of course** I still want him around, sometimes. Sleepovers are always fun with him, and he’s good at playing games and stuff.” He shakes his head to clear it. “But it’s just… Gone too far. A schedule of 24 hours spent with me, starting over and over every day just because it’s summer vacation and it’s possible for him to come over and stay… Wouldn’t it be too much for anybody other than that kid?..”

Hun sighs. _Why do I have to care so much?.._ The other end of the call emits the sound of soft snoring; Hweseung has fallen asleep.

**J** aehyun is scratching behind Dukbae’s ears, legs stretched out across the small rug decorating Hun’s bedroom floor, when Hun tells him the big news. “My family and I are going on a vacation, so I won’t be here for a week.”

The meaning behind the words reaches him only after a few seconds. The mathematics of this whole operation are clear: 1. Hun’s family is leaving. 2. Hun is leaving. 3. Jaehyun will be alone.

And Jaehyun can’t handle being alone. He just **can’t**.

“Wait—” Jaehyun panics, placing his hand beside his sleeping dog and scrunching his fingers into a fist. He won’t let this thing go down without a fight. “But I thought you said your whole summer is free…?”

Hun nonchalantly pets Romang. His legs are scrunched up just like his cat’s, and he’s holding his chin on his knees. His lips are slightly pouted. “It was… At first. But now it’s not.”

Jaehyun feels like his heart has stopped. But then he’s hit with a revelation. _That’s it; you total **genius** , Jaehyun!! _He leaps at the opportunity to stop Hun from leaving. “And who’s going to take care of Romang while you’re away?” His tone may be snide, but his hands are still sweating from the pressure. He sobs on the inside because of his inability to properly hide his tenseness.

Across from him, Hun looks as unperturbed as ever. “Neighbors.” Then, as a second thought, “I know she’ll be fine, but I’ll miss my baby.”

_There goes that plan._

Jaehyun knows he shouldn’t get so down over something as trivial as his friend going on vacation, but he just can’t help it. He doesn’t like moping around and having nobody to play with. Jaehyun must — MUST!! — come over to Hun’s house incrementally, for 24 hours at a time, because otherwise he’ll surely die of boredom. At least that’s what his racing heartbeat tells him every time he has to leave his bestie alone. That’s why now, Jaehyun’s in a metaphorical corner.

His fisted hand unfurls and he bites his lip. There’s only one thing to say in a situation like this.

“…Will you miss me?”

Hun looks over at him with a scrunched up nose and slanted eyes. He looks too disgusted to say anything nice, and that makes Jaehyun’s ears grow cold. He wasn’t ready to hear news like this from his best friend earlier, and he isn’t ready right now to face the reality of just how tired Hun’s grown of him, isn’t prepared for the letdown he’s going to get, surely, from the one he’s grown a tad too attached to over time. But then Hun’s gaze softens, nose sniffles gently. “Yeah. I’ll miss you.”

Jaehyun can’t believe it. It’s all too unreal, because his best friend would never act so affectionate. No, no; this is all a figment of his imagination, made up of all those dreams he had where Hun actually cared enough to not be bored of him. His mouth opens around a hasty, “Wait— Really?..”

Hun looks more offended than he should. “Yah! What’d you think I’d say? You’re my friend — my **best** friend — you idiot!!”

Jaehyun just barely dodges the leg coming his way and finally allows himself to relax. The circadian rhythm he has established with Hun has not posed a real risk to their friendship, which is a massive relief if anything. _I must’ve done **something** right, then… _Before Jaehyun can get too comfortable, though, Hun’s expression becomes stern. “Wh—What is it?,,” Jaehyun asks.

“I’ll miss you while I’m away, but you have to promise that I can have breaks from you even when I get back. And I don’t think my parents approve of Dukbae coming over.”

The weight of nervousness and stress immediately drops off of Jaehyun’s shoulders. “Yeah, yeah,” he offers offhandedly, then pokes at Hun with his toe. “We can talk about that later.”

He twists away before Hun can kick him for real, lets out a hearty laugh. They’ll have plenty of time to decide, he’s sure.


End file.
